Women's Sport

[FromEsme]

So since the Olympics, women's sport has vanished again. A major cycling team has had their sponsorship dropped ( you can read the story here ) and the Guardian and the BBC home pages have zero on them about women's sport. It's all men's men's men's.

MNers, what can we do to rectify this situation? I WANT to read about women in sport. I have written a letter to the sports editor of the Guardian, but what else can we do?

If you are on twitter you could try pointing this out to the relevant papers. i use the hashtag #halfthepopulation to comment (almost daily) on the proportion of women's mentions in the paper on my daily commute

How have attendances for womens sport gone? There were plenty of people willing to pay money to attend during the olympics and people happy to make noises about how there should be greater focus on both womens and minority sports (such as athletics etc.) but I'd wager that there has been little follow through.
I'm not sure if it's solely a womens issue, because like I said, the same effect can be seen throughout male minority sports.
If people are honestly seeking out these events and tweeting, blogging or attending then fair enough I'm completely wrong, but I'm not so sure that the appetite of the general populace for attending a marquee event like the Olympics, which for many was more about the occassion than any true love of the sport, is replicated in going to a regional/national meet or event (obviously those who were interested before the olympics will still be highly interested.)

It is SO hard to find any information at all about women's sport (and, I agree, about any sport that isn't football). People don't attend because they simply don't know how to find out about it. I have tried to find out if there are any women's cycling meets coming up, but I just can't.

If these things are out in the open and obvious, people will go to them. I know I would.

DD2 would follow Women's Football if there was any decent publicity. She's 11 and moans quite often that it's all men's.

Except in mixed things like the Olympics and grand slam tennis and athletic meets woman's sport just vanishes.

If we want an Olympic legacy that inspires a generation we shouldn't leave 50% of that generation out.

FromEsme - What about encouraging a letter/email writing campaign to relevant papers? You could provide information on who to write to, email addresses and useful facts, and post it here and ask people to share it on fb and other places.

FromEsme, I second what Eats said, I'd be up for a writing campaign.

I have posted two threads on MN about how I believe that the TV chanels are missing a huge opportunity to get (admittedly cheap) deals for women's sport.

Both of them where ignored.

I can only assume that no-one was bothered.

I think part of the problem is that football is talked/written about constantly. I love athletics but it's the big competitions I like to watch - Olympics, World Champs etc. I'm not particularly interested in watching a local meeting. However, with football, local meetings are effectively what you get all the time. In other sports only the major competitions are mentioned because that's where you get to see top class performers. For some reason even mediocre and tedious football matches get loads of coverage.

I run sports teams, we get about 99% boys for football and 95% boys for cricket. Junior cricket is a totally mixed sport. Football has been changed to i think mixed until Under 14.

The FA and the ECB are promoting girls participating in playing the sports but it takes parents to take them along.

Take them along, get them interested as they're the potential spectators of the future.

I have provided information on here before re women's football. A lot of English Premier League clubs have fully independent women's teams now - Arsenal, Everton, Liverpool etc. They have the FA WSL;

www.thefa.com/Leagues/SuperLeague

Then there is the FA Cup;

www.thefa.com/Competitions/FACompetitions/TheFAWomensCup/newsandfeatures/2011/1rq2rq-draws

13,000 fans watched Arsenal win the Cup last year. It is all on the FA's website;

www.thefa.com/womens/

There is even a section at the end about development of young talented players.

As a guide, Liverpool charge something like 4 UK pounds for entrance to a league match, so it isn't expensive.

The OP asked what she can do to encourage the media to cover more sport. I would suggest attending and supporting a local football team for starters.

As for cycling, try this website;

www.womenscycling.net/

It's an international site, but it covers all the major meetings and championships. As with men's cycling, most big races are on the continent because the sport is so much bigger over there. If you want to find a club and participate, as well as meet like-minded people, try here;

www.britishcycling.org.uk/clubfinder

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-19608812

Ah, so it has at last been noticed by the powers that be how great a part women played in Olympic success and how badly they are represented in the media.

FWIW my husband (ex rugby player and, like myself, a sports enthusiast) have Sky Sports (yes I know it's not PC among many mums netters to have a Murdoch channel) because we are sports enthusiasts and because we both like to see women's sport as well as men's sport. And Sky covers women's rugby, cricket, football, tennis and golf widely as well as other sports.

I'd be up for letter writing. I read on twitter (but unverified) that netball gets higher viewing figures than the Scottish premier league but netball is on sky sport 3 and the spl on sky sport 1. I love netball. I might start there if I can verify it :)

this from Clare Badling.

www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/bbc/9551632/BBC-wont-bankrupt-itself-to-keep-top-stars-says-new-boss.html

Every cloud has a silver lining apparently. Lack of cash means BBC looking to women's sport as it cannot afford male sports...

It is not included in this online edition but the print edition reports;"Mr Entwhistle also suggested that the BBC might be forced to concentrate on minority sports such as women's football as commercial rivals muscle in on showcase events."

So maybe it helps us women to be a cheap minority sometimes

I guess it is supply and demand. If there is the demand for women's sport to be shown on TV and it is financially viable to the point of being an income generator, then it will be shown.

However, the correct financial decision is not always the correct decision for equality.

I do think that the BBC could be very positive in this area even if it is not financially viable, at the moment.

So in light of this thread and the calls for more exposure and the fact there's an international match on right now..... Who's watching?

mayorquimby "So in light of this thread and the calls for more exposure and the fact there's an international match on right now..... Who's watching?"

Wonderful question!

I take it you mean the England Croatia match mayorquimby. I've recorded it to watch this evening though football (men's or women's) is my very least liked sport, though thankfully women's football does seem not to have as many of the diving divas as men's does. Much prefer rugby.

Yep that's what I'm talking about.
Watching it now before the united match, was just interested to see the level of interest given this is an international match on the BBC and free to air.
I'd disagree on the diving but there isn't as much pissing and moaning at the red which is a positive. Unfortunately the quality of the women's game always suffers by comparison IMHO but these aren't exactly the two teams you'd watch for quality.

Of course many MNetters are at work at 5/6pm mayor - can't all sit in front of daytime telly!

Really good match but I only saw it by luck.

@FromEsme people like Jean Hatchet cyle for women's rights

Chelsea v Tottenham's women's match at the weekend got 25k attendance.

@LangCleg number are on the increase which is a good thing to see
woman's football is good

• I have tried to find out if there are any women's cycling meets coming up, but I just can't.

I've not tried these myself yet, and it looks like leisure rather than 'sport' but may be if interest:

www.letsride.co.uk/breeze